1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for outputting information, and a control method therefor. In particular, the present invention pertains to an information processing apparatus that is one of a plurality of apparatuses that communicate with each other, one apparatus outputting information in response to the receipt of an instruction from another apparatus, or requesting a required process from another apparatus, and a control method therefor.
2. Related Background Art
A conventional printing apparatus can perform printing in consonance with an objective by altering the setups for various printing parameters, such as the paper size, the number of printed copies, the printing speed and the printing quality.
However, among the factors involved in the setting up of printing parameters, there are certain elements, such as urgency, economy and print quality, that in some cases may be in conflict, and as the number of parameters to be set is therefore increased, it is difficult for a user to set the appropriate parameters. Even when a user knows which parameter values are appropriate, for the user it is inconvenient to set the parameters one after another. And while a complex setup operation will not be required when default values are employed, it is not possible to establish optimal parameter values for individual documents.
A single printer on a network can be used in a plurality of users. In this case, a document submitted by one user is mixed with a document submitted by another user. Therefore, when, for example, two users submit a plurality of documents, the results obtained as the output must be sorted. When a document is left on an output tray, the contents of the document must be examined in order to determine who submitted the document.
An information processing apparatus, called a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC), handles electronic data. Therefore, physical information, such as information written on paper or a printed document that exists in real space is converted into electronic information by an input device, such as a scanner or a digital camera, so that a PC can process the information. When a person is to process electronic information stored in a PC, the electronic information must be converted into physical information by an output device, such as a printer or a display.
Based on the fact that the output device is one of the peripheral devices attached to a PC, it can be controlled by the PC, not by another peripheral device. The information required for such control must be stored in the PC in an appropriate form.
A user is to perform the following operation on a PC and a printer to convert electronic information stored in a PC into printed physical information, as is shown in FIG. 159. In this case, the PC must hold, in the form of a printer driver, information concerning the operating procedures for the printer.
First, a user employs a printer driver held in the PC to send a printing instruction. Then, the PC sends a printing command to the printer. Upon the receipt of the printing command, the printer, unless it is busy, immediately initiates the printing of the instructed information. Following this, the user collects the printed document. The printing command includes the document data that is the printing target. The printing target must be described in a form that the printer can process.
A PC can be used as a server terminal, as is shown in FIG. 160. In this case, the PC receives from a server each select data that is to be displayed on a screen in accordance with the transmission protocol, such as X Window System, and displays the data as prescribed by the instructions.
Information read by a scanner can be transmitted to a printer for printing via a PC, as is shown in FIG. 161. Therefore, a scanner and a printer can together be employed as a pseudo copier. It should be noted, however, that a scanner driver and a printer driver must be installed in the PC in advance, and the joint employment of the two devices must be specified. If conversion of the image format of the scanner into a format that the printer can process is required, the PC must perform such format conversion before transmitting the data. Further, the format conversion must be performed, as needed, at the,discretion of a user.
A printing command for a specific printer must be directly transmitted to that printer. In addition, printing target information must also be transmitted to the printer with the printing command from the PC. If the printing target information is to be transmitted to a device other than a PC, or to a printer in some cases, first the PC must acquire the information by communicating with another device, and must then transmit the information to the printer.
The received printing target document is immediately printed if printing is enabled.